Black Mail Blog

Black History: Special Delivery!!

Retailer H & M recently pulled a photo of a black boy wearing a hoodie with said, “coolest monkey in the jungle“. Not sure how NO ONE thought about how this would be viewed as offensive. The ad has been pulled, but not before social media blasted the retailer. Not surpisingly, the retailer also had some defenders on social media making comments like, “I see a sweet little black boy wearing a sweater with ‘coolest monkey in the jungle. I see nothing else. Hope this helps.”
Another said, “Perhaps it was an innocent mistake and no-one even thought that they injected racism into the ad.”

Unfortunately, the disrespect of comparing black people to monkeys has a long standing racist history!

Sources:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/h-m-slammed-racism-coolest-monkey-jungle-hoodie-article-1.3744160

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5a53203be4b003133ec9917a/amp